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Best U.S. zoos: Readers' Choice award winners

10 Best U.S. Zoo winners are revealed after a four-week contest garnered more votes than any previous 10Best Readers' Choice contest. Winners include Toledo Zoo, St. Louis Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo and Memphis Zoo.

Best U.S. zoos: Readers' Choice award winners

We asked 10Best and USA TODAY readers to help us pick the Best U.S. Zoo, and the winners are in. The competition was fierce, but the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio, takes home the top prize. Our winning zoo boasts an incredible 9,000 animals from 800 different species, making it one of the world's most complete zoos. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Third place Cincinnati Zoo, one of the oldest in the country, features an animal nursery in the Spaulding Children's Zoo where guests can peek in on the park's newest baby animals. (Photo: Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau)

The Henry Doorly Zoo, our number six finisher for Best U.S. Zoo, in Omaha includes an aquarium, IMAX theater and wildlife safari park. The zoo's Desert Dome is home to the world's largest indoor desert environment. (Photo: Omaha Convention & Visitors Bureau)

The exhibits at the Houston Zoo, coming in at number seven, were designed to give visitors up-close views of the animal inhabitants which thrill its daily visitors. (Photo: Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau)

Number nine Dallas Zoo, the largest in Texas, takes visitors on a journey through every major habitat on the African continent in its Wilds of Africa exhibit, the first of its kind in the world. (Photo: DCVB)

Finishing out our top 10 list, the San Diego Zoo houses 3,700 animals from 650 species and subspecies, while its sister Safari Park features another 2,600 animals from 300 species. (Photo: Flickr/Heather Paul)

The remaining 10 zoos all earned nominations for Best U.S. Zoo, but didn't get enough reader votes to make the top 10. Some 600 species of animals call the 265-acre Bronx Zoo in New York home, including guest favorites sea lions and Siberian tigers. (Photo: Jen Davis, NYC & Company)

More than 600 species representing six different continents live at the Cleveland Zoo, and part of the cost of each admission goes to conservation projects around the globe. (Photo: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo)

The Oklahoma City Zoo is a great value (its admission price is one of the lowest of our nominees), especially since visitors have the chance to see 500 species of animals, including 54 endangered species. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The 170-acre Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C., has earned recognition throughout its four decades of operation for its successful breeding programs with animals like toucans and howler monkeys. (Photo: Riverbanks Zoo and Garden)

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10Best's Readers' Choice contest for Best U.S. Zoo shattered voting records in all previous contest categories. After a four-week period of intense participation by wildlife enthusiasts and regional stakeholders, Toledo Zoo came out on top. An amazing amount of support from fans, followers, friends and patrons catapulted this respected institution to the No. 1 position in the "Best U.S. Zoo" results.

Landing a very solid second place is St. Louis Zoo, which also had legions of loyal fans voting daily, and even up through the final minutes of the contest.

Cincinnati Zoo takes third place honors, followed by No. 4 Memphis Zoo, and fifth place finisher Columbus Zoo. A special thanks goes out to "Jungle Jack" Hanna, who encouraged animal lovers across the U.S. to vote for the zoo of their choice, despite being long associated with the Columbus Zoo, where he is Director Emeritus. The fourth and fifth place finishers ran a very tight race.

Wildlife educator Jack Hanna took a moment out of his busy schedule to talk to USA TODAY about the roles that zoos play in our lives.

Omaha's popular Henry Doorly Zoo also ran a successful campaign, landing it in sixth place. It was followed by Houston Zoo, Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Dallas Zoo and San Diego Zoo & Safari Park.

Although 10Best and USA TODAY don't normally make note of finishes outside the top 10, the Oklahoma City Zoo just missed making the list by a small number of votes. The other nine nominees included Bronx Zoo, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Denver Zoo, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Louisville Zoo, Minnesota Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, and Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C.

In addition to the extraordinary number of votes this contest garnered, it was also unique in another regard. Three zoos from one state - Ohio - have landed in the top 10 and a fourth zoo from The Buckeye State secured one of the coveted original 20 nominations.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) provided no opinions on potential nominees but did offer the data our editorial team used to carefully select the zoos which would vie for the title. Criteria included total acreage, annual attendance, the cost of admission, each zoo's contributions to wildlife conservation efforts, the number of supporting members each has, and recent industry awards which were won.

The winners in the "Best US Zoo" contest category for 10Best Readers' Choice are as follows: